Ninja Watching
by XaldinIII
Summary: Some of the neophytes decide to spy on the new member, with some interesting results. Note: Matured for swearing.


**Author's Notes:**

Just so you know, Xira is an OrgXIII character I created. In this she's number XVII (she's usually XIV), but only because there are 3 OTHER extra characters.

And PLEASE review! I'll love you for it!!!

* * *

**Ninja Watching**

Purple eyes locked onto their target: a blond with sapphire-blue eyes, and a green-eyed lanky redhead. [_Roxas: Light. Has some really serious issues, seems to be close to Axel. Looks scarily like Sora._] [_Axel: Fire. A pyro, has a laid-back personality. Probably only stays in the Organization because of Roxas._] Xira clung to the ceiling of the invariably bleak Castle That Never Was. The walls, the floor, and the ceiling, both inside and outside the castle, all had the same pattern of white, shades of grey, and blue-grey. There were also a lot of Nobody emblems- some of them 3D- so it was easy to find things to hold on to. She switched her gaze to the other two in the room. [_Jinxes: Metal. Seems like a nice person, a good friend of Kagami. Don't know much about her._] [_Kagami: Suggestion. Pirate-ish thief guy, but don't know much about him either._] She finished her analysis of the four members in the room and contemplated whether or not she should join them, as Xemnas had suggested. She would have to talk to them _eventually_, but seeing as she had just joined the Organization, it might be awkward to join a conversation when what they were discussing was, undoubtedly, her. And it wasn't an _order_, after all. Plus she was really bad with strangers, and she wanted to analyse them a little more. She weighed up her options, then came to a decision.

Crawling across the ceiling to get closer to them, she found new footholds and listened to their conversation.

"Not that I really care, but who brought her back?" That was Kagami.

"Demyx." said Axel.

"Demyx?" Kagami repeated.

"Demyx."

The thief nodded slowly. "… right... Then she's probably worse at fighting than him. If that's possible." he added as an afterthought.

Axel grinned. "Actually, she's a ninja."

"Demyx captured a ninja." he said flatly.

"Yep."

There was silence for a while. Kagami shook his head several times. "Something about the world seems really out of place."

"Come on, Kai, you don't know the whole story yet!" Jinxes put in.

A mullet that she recognised entered the room. "Hey guys."said Demyx. [_Demyx: Water. Unintentional pervert. Not sure what he actually _does_ for the Organization, but otherwise a good person._]

Axel gave him a two-fingered salute. "Yo, Dem! Perfect timing! Jinx wants to know the whole story!"

Demyx froze in mid-step. "Er…" He hesitated and began to fidget with his fingers.

"Come on, Dem." said Kagami.

"…Um, okay."

_  
A while earlier …  
_

"Stupid Xemnas." Demyx muttered to himself, kicking at a rock on the path. "Sending me on another stupid scouting mission, like I'm a kid. Like I'm not good enough to do other missions or something. Like he _owns_ the Org-" He stopped walking. "Oh, right." He picked up the rock and started walking again, tossing it up and catching it again. "Roxas gets to go on harder missions, and he's two years _younger_ than me! Xemnas isn't putting my talents to good use. Treats me like- WAH!"

A hand shoved him into a wall by the neck and kunai appeared at his throat. "Don't move." a voice whispered. Demyx did as he was told, despite the fact that he was shaking. The hand on his neck moved to search his pockets and pilfered some loose change and a yo-yo. "You gotta be kidding me." the voice muttered. Demyx opened his eyes: his attacker was a girl with silver hair that hung over a black band on her forehead. The rest of it was tied back into a long plait, and she wore a mask so that only her purple eyes showed.

"Is that all you've got?" she asked.

Demyx tried to answer but couldn't find his voice. He nodded instead.

The girl sighed. "Got any friends with you?" Demyx shook his head. The girl let out another exasperated sigh, then shrugged. "You know what, this isn't even worth keeping." She gave him back his items and eyed him curiously. "Why are you still shaking? Don't tell me you've never been robbed before."

Finally finding his voice, Demyx brightened up. "Hey, you're a Nobody, too!"

"Wha…?"

"I can feel it! … Well, I can't, but that's how I know! 'Cause Somebodies have a presence, but Nobodies don't 'cause they don't exist. And Heartless have a scent of darkness. Actually so do Nobodies, but it's different. And you don't have a presence, but you don't have the same scent as Heartless, so you must be a Nobody, too! … Hey, if I bring you back, maybe Xemnas will finally recognise my ability and give me a proper mission!"

The girl stared.

"I'm Demyx, by the way!" He smiled and held out his hand. She didn't take it. "Oh, yeah! Also, Nobodies don't have hearts!" He moved his hand to where her heart would have been. "See? No heartbe-"

"You PERVERT!!" she yelled, punching him in the face and sending him sprawling across the ground.

"… then she came to check on me but of course I was only pretending to be unconscious, and then I beat her up and took her to Xemmy!"

"Demyx."

"What?" he asked innocently.

"I believed you until after she punched you in the face."

Demyx fidgeted. "Um… well… it was _mostly_ true…

_  
A while earlier, actual version…  
_

"You PERVERT!!" she yelled, punching him in the face and sending him sprawling across the ground. She appeared with a knee on his chest and kunai at his throat and whispered, "Take me to your leader."

With a shaky hand, Demyx opened up a portal to The World That Never Was. She kicked him and sent him sailing through the air, colliding with the chest of a Xemnas who was just leaving his office. Demyx laughed nervously. "Eh heh… hi, sir?" He pointed to the girl who had just emerged from behind him. "Look what I found."

-

"… you're hopeless."

"So you didn't find out anything else about her? Past? Homeworld?"

Demyx shrugged. "I don't know, I couldn't get her to talk."

"But there has to be a way of getting information out of her. Right, Kai?" Jinxes nudged Kagami in the ribs.

Xira stared disbelievingly. _Don't they have anything else to talk about?_

Somewhere behind and her and on the ground, a quiet voice spoke up. "Hey…"

"YAH!!"

THUNK.

Xira lost her grip and fell to the ground. The white-haired girl who had spoken gasped and quickly went to help her.

"Oh my god! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! Are you alright?"

"Y-yeah. You just… surprised me, that's all." Xira stood up and recognised the white hair and green eyes from Xemnas' description. [_Wingx :Balance. A nice person, Xemnas' favourite. Could've warned me._]

Wingx's green eyes widened, and she began to apologise repeatedly. Xira quickly realised she had said the wrong thing and quickly amended, "It's okay. I'm used to heights."

Neither of them said anything and Xira felt inclined to form the 'awkward turtle'. "Ah… I'm Wingx, by the way." Wingx said, breaking the silence and bowing slightly.

Being more careful of what she said, Xira decided that 'I know' wasn't a good response. "… Xira." she said instead.

As would be expected, the others had heard the crash and came to investigate.

"Hey, it's the newbie!"

"Wow, she really does have purple eyes!"

"That's creepy."

"Are you really a ninja?"

"Where are you from?"

"Do you know Yuffie?"

Stunned, Xira turned and looked at all of them while they continued to bombard her with questions. "Ah… um…"

"Your hair is the same colour as Xemnas'! Are you guys related?"

"Guys, at least let her _breathe_, for- Hey, where'd she go?"

They looked around and Jinxes spotted her boot disappearing through a tunnel high up on the wall. "There she is!"

"Wow, I never knew there was a tunnel there!"

"That's 'cause people hardly look up."

"- which means Roxas has a small range of vision!"

"Hey, shut up!" Everyone laughed.

This was all vague to Wingx as she stared in the direction Xira had gone. _What a weird person. _

***

Although some of the neophytes had tried to locate the ninja, they didn't see her for the rest of the day. Nor did they see her while they were having breakfast the next day. Or the entire morning.

"You don't think Xemnas sent her on an overnight mission on her first day, do you?" Jinxes said eventually.

Kagami shrugged. "Probably not. He doesn't even know her abilities."

"I don't know." Roxas put in slowly. "Even without an element, she could probably manage easily with just her ninjutsu."

Everyone looked at each other. "Then…" Axel voiced the question that was on everyone's minds in a mock-detective way, "Where is she?"

"Has anyone actually checked her room?" Kagami said indifferently. "You know, she could just be a heavy sleeper, or have a weird day/night cycle, or something."

"Who sleeps in until _12:30_?!"

Kagami shrugged. "Maybe she does."

It was a few minutes later that Jinxes, Kagami, Axel, and Roxas decided to check Xira's room (Wingx had been sent on a mission and Demyx was just scared). Jinxes hesitated, then knocked on the door. "Um... Xi?... Look, sorry about yesterday. We were just curious about you, 'cause you're the new member and all... and 'cause you're a ninja... We just wanted to meet you and get to know you better, that's all. Sorry about the Q and A session..."

There was no answer.

"Yeah… so… if you don't want to tell us anything yet, then that's okay. We won't ask you any more questions about your past, alright? I promise." After some silence, she looked at the others. "Maybe we really upset her."

Axel waved a hand. "We're Nobodies. She _can't_ get upset. Even if she tried."

"Oh, right." Jinxes turned to face the door again. "Xi…? If you're in there, please say something. _Please_." Receiving no answer, she sighed exasperatedly and tried to open the door. It was locked. "That does it! Look, if you don't open the door RIGHT now, I am going to bust it open and _make_ you talk! Ninja or no ninja, I swear I will kick your sorry ass into obli-"

A computerized voice spoke up. "Threat detected. Activating security system. 10, 9, 8, 7…"

"What the hell?"

"Oh shit-"

"Get back!"

They portalled to opposite sides of the corridor and waited apprehensively. "…3, 2, 1."

***

Far off in the multiverse, the band on Xira's wrist beeped. She smiled. "That's interesting."

***

The four Nobodies were having coughing fits as smoke filled the corridor. Pieces of Nothingness clattered to the ground, and the finer pieces settled eventually. They went to regroup at the site of the explosion to investigate; there was a massive crater in the centre of the room.

"You know," said Roxas, "Did it ever actually occur to you that she wasn't actually _there_?"

Jinxes smiled sheepishly. "Well, she wasn't much of a talker yesterday. She could've been _pretending_ not to be there so we would leave her alone. Axel?"

Axel had gone to investigate the device in the centre of the crater. "A bomb that sets off when someone tries to enter your room. Wish I'd thought of it first."

Kagami rolled his eyes. "Never mind that, how do we explain this?" He indicated the debris.

"Shit."

Just then a portal opened, dispensing a very amused-looking Xira.

They turned to glare at her. "You…"

***

Xemnas interlaced his fingers and rested his elbows on his desk. "Explain."

Axel, Roxas, Jinxes, Kagami, and Xira, all stood in a line before him, not daring to look up. No-one said anything, waiting and hoping for someone else to speak up first, although, in the case of the four not-so-new neophytes, they were hoping it would be someone other than the ninja who had proven to be much more deceptive than they first thought. Xemnas waited.

"Well?"

After a short silence, Kagami said casually, "We were worried about XVII because we hadn't seen her since yesterday. We went to check on her, but when we got to her room a bomb went off."

Orange eyes switched to the innocent-looking Xira who shrugged. "It's a security device. If I'd known those four would try to break into my room, I might have left it off." There was something smug about her tone. The others glared {I hate you}s at her.

"XVII." Xemnas said sternly.

"Yes, sir." More seriously this time, "The security system is programmed to activate only when it detects a threat. It won't set off if someone just knocks on the door, or tries to open it."

"It's still pretty dangerous, though." Kagami put in.

Xira shrugged again. "I didn't think you guys would try to break into my room."

"So you were trying to blow up someone else?"

"That's enough." said Xemnas.

Roxas exploded. "_It was a fucking bomb!_ You could've _killed_ us!"

Xira shook her head. "It's designed not to. It'll hurt a bit, but nothing a simple potion can't fix. Unless you're a kid."

Roxas reddened and began to hurl insults and attempt to throw punches at her. Axel had to hold him back. "Roxy, calm down."

Roxas tried to swat him away. "No! And stop calling me that!" With the use of his arms disabled, he began to kick instead. [_Roxas: Also has anger-management problems_.]

Xemnas watched in amusement, Kagami had his hands in his pockets, Axel was restraining Roxas, Roxas was in an almost-Saïx-berserker mode, and Xira just watched. Jinxes looked from the now-psycho blond, to Xira, to Roxas, to Xira again. "I am _so_ sorry about this. He's a little crazy."

Xira nodded. "Yeah. So I noticed."

Her complete calm and tactlessness was an unintentional yet very effective catalyst. "I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!! I SWEAR TO ALL FUCKING POWERS I'LL FUCKING KILL- mph!" Axel's hand went over his mouth and from then on there continued only muffled shouting, although they all had a fair idea what it was about.

"Now then." Xemnas addressed all of them. "Your punishment."

Roxas managed to pry Axel's hand off his mouth. "We didn't fucking _do_ any-mph!"

"It is not severe enough to merit elimination, so instead, for the next 5 days, one of you per day will be on cleaning duty. Fortunately for you, I can repair the damage. But," There was a gleam in his eye, "it will take a lot of energy. You are all to go and find raw materials to create three ethers each, and bring them back here. Then you will synthesise them yourselves. Anyone who fails to meet the quota will be cleaning up for a week. If I do not see you synthesise them, I will assume you cheated and consider it a failure to meet the quota. You have three hours, beginning now. And XVII," he added gravely, running a hand through his silver hair, "Remove that device. Dismissed."

Roxas was probably protesting, but of course, no-one could understand him as Axel guided him out the door. The others followed.

"Harsh guy." said Kagami to Jinxes when they were out of earshot.

"Yeah."

Xira created a portal and disappeared.

"Gotta be careful of that one." Axel noted.

"I say she's hiding something!" Jinxes announced. "Xemnas would reward us if we caught her red-handed… so who's in?"

Axel grinned. "Heh. But not now, we've got some ethers to make."

***

The darkness dispersed as yet another Heartless fell victim to Xira's shuriken. In her training as a ninja, she had learnt to use many weapons, but the shuriken was by far her favourite. It was the most effective for her; she could throw it at a distance, or slash with it at close range. And it dropped those Heartless in one hit.

In her ninja training, she had also had to study medicine and geography, so she knew exactly what she needed and where to find it. By now, she already had most of the things she needed; she had bought all the materials that could be bought from a holographic moogle, and the rest she was currently finding through her Heartless-hunting session. It was slightly more difficult to find them as a Nobody, because they didn't cluster around her as they did when she had a heart for them to try and consume. Still, she managed.

She finished a while later as one dropped the last item she needed. She looked at her watch; only forty-two minutes had passed; there was plenty of time for a quick trip to some civilised worlds.

***

The others, having formed an alliance, were not doing so well. Lacking Xira's background, they actually had to find out what they needed to create ethers (although Kagami dragged that information out of Vexen soon enough). That wasn't the problem. The problem was actually _finding_ the materials. At one point, they had even asked a moogle, but because Axel touched its pom-pom, it refused to help and promptly vanished. Eventually they had to resort to the Hollow Bastion library. No-one had been in the castle for a while, so it was safe for them.

By the time they had found all the information they needed, about an hour of their time limit had passed. By the time they had actually finished obtaining the materials (the moogle still refused to help), a little over two hours had passed.

"We've still got time." said Kagami with a shrug. "She's a ninja. Even if she finds the materials, there's no way she'll know how to synthesise them."

"Neither do we." Axel pointed out.

Kagami showed him the notes. "Then lucky I copied it down." Jinxes peered closely at the scrawled handwriting.

"Wo-o-ow. Can you even read that?"

Roxas was getting impatient. "Argh… Let's just take these back to Xemnas already! We can worry about the rest later! There's no way I'll lose to that ninja freak!"

"Alright, alright." Axel threw out his arm and ripped open a portal.

***

Xira sneezed. _Can Nobodies even get colds?_ she wondered, then shook her head and continued with what she was doing. Those four had been mistaken; during her ninja training, she had to study medicine, so she knew exactly how to synthesise recovery items- including ethers. In fact, she had already brought her materials back to Xemnas, and finished synthesising them, and been told that she passed. And as for now… she had some business to attend to in Agrabah.

***

"Okay, Axel!"

"Got it."

BANG.

The ether exploded and the four Nobodies began to cough. Xemnas watched with a raised eyebrow.

Axel laughed nervously. "Eh… that wasn't it."

"Axel!" Roxas protested.

"That's the second one you screwed up!"

The pyro put a hand behind his neck. "Right. I… think we're gonna need some more materials." With that, he disappeared into the darkness.

"Wait-" Roxas began, but Axel was already gone. The blond slumped to the ground and grumbled, "Looks like it's cleaning duty for us."

"Hey, look on the bright side!" said Jinxes, playfully punching him in the shoulder. "At least the 'ninja freak' will also be cleaning up."

"Actually," Xemnas interrupted. "XVII returned an hour ago, and has already successfully synthesised three ethers."

Their mouths fell open. "What?!"

"But if I were you, I would be more worried about the state of your own ethers."

Kagami went to pour the sooty black liquid into the sink.

***

Axel, Roxas, Jinxes, and Kagami were a group. They were an alliance. A team. Technically they had all been in this together. Technically they had all been responsible for gathering the required raw materials. Technically they had all been responsible for properly synthesising the materials once found. So technically, they were all responsible for their failure to successfully produce twelve ethers.

And thus, the rest of the organization had no need to worry about cleaning up for the next four weeks.

Xira had disappeared after serving her punishment and was away for most of the time after that, although they occasionally saw her laughing at the one cleaning. The five days for which one of them was on cleaning duty as a default punishment had already passed, and now, the first week began.

Roxas grumbled as he wiped the table, on which the other members had _kindly_ left plenty scraps for him after having breakfast.

Axel was leaning casually against the wall with his arms folded across his chest, watching him. "You know, you forgot something."

"What?" Roxas snapped angrily.

The fire-elemental grinned mischievously. "The maid's outfit. Ow!" Roxas threw a feather duster at his head.

"Shut up! You'll be doing this next week, and I'll be sure to get _you_ into a maid's outfit!"

"Heh. I'm sure _you_ would like that."

Roxas reddened. "That's not what I-… Hey, shut up!" And he proceeded to beat him over the head with the cloth he was holding.

"Okay, I get it!"

Now beet-red, Roxas went back to the table and continued to clean up in an uncomfortable silence, occasionally throwing annoyed glances in Axel's general direction, and muttering things along the lines of 'ass', and 'idiot'. He was relieved when Xigbar's head materialised in mid-air. "Hey kid!"

Roxas noticed Xigbar's almost-identical-to-Axel's grin but decided things couldn't get any worse. Of course he was wrong. "You're on cleaning duty, right?"

The blond was clearly exercising a great deal of restraint not to throw something at him. He closed his eyes and counted to five, then said through gritted teeth, "What do you _think_?"

The Freeshooter's grin widened. "Great! Then, with my authority as number two in the organization, you're wearing a maid's outfit for the rest of the week."

"What?!" Roxas exclaimed. "You can't do that!"

"For Ax, come on. Oh, wait. Wait- no… no, I got this." His grin widened further. "… that's an _order_!"

Roxas yelled and tried to hit Xigbar, but he vanished. "DAMNIT, XIGBAR!!"

Jinxes burst into the room. "Hey guys!- Hey, where's Kai?"

Roxas sent the grinning redhead yet another glare. "Well, he probably had better things to do than just _watch me clean_."

Xigbar's head reappeared in the room. "Almost forgot- I got your maid's outfit from your room." One of his hands emerged from nowhere and threw him the maid's outfit, along with the frilly lace-edged apron and a pair of fishnet tights. "Oh, hey, Jinx!" he said, then disappeared again.

Jinxes stared. "_You_ own a _maid's _outfit?"

"I-It's not what you think!" Roxas said defensively, colouring.

Jinxes began to laugh hysterically.

"I can explain!" he tried again.

"I don't even wanna know!" the blonde said from in between laughter.

"Sure," said Axel slyly. "You just keep telling yourself that." Both Jinxes and Roxas opened their mouths to protest but he cut them off. "So anyway, Jinx, what were you gonna say before?"

Jinxes recovered. "Oh, that. Well, I saw Xira looking really suspicious. She portalled in hiding something behind her back, then looked around and went into her room. And then she started counting."

"And we're gonna spy on her, right?" said Axel.

"You got it! Roxas, you coming?"

Roxas looked at her incredulously. "Do you have to ask? Because of her I have to clean and wear a maid's outfit for a week!"

"Right! Now we just have to go find Kai!"

Luckily they didn't have to. Kagami walked in and stopped, stared at Roxas, then the outfit he was holding, then Roxas again. "Did I miss something?"

Jinxes smiled cheerfully. "We're gonna go spy on Xi! You coming?" Of course, it was a rhetorical question.

Kagami shrugged. "I guess. Rox, Why are you holding a maid's outfit?"

Roxas looked down at his feet uncomfortably. Jinxes answered instead. "Xigbar's orders; he has to wear that for the rest of the week!"

Xigbar's eye warped into the room. It looked at Roxas, still in his Organization coat, then his mouth appeared next to the blond's ear. "That doesn't look like a maid's outfit!"

Roxas sighed in defeat. "Um… I'll go get changed."

***

The four of them edged their way along the corridor wall, on the side of the odd-ranked members' bedrooms. Although Xira's room was the closest to them (Xemnas' room being at the very end of the dead-end corridor), it was a very slow progress; they had to synchronise their steps to avoid shuffling noises, and that alone had taken some time. They were also being much less ninja than they thought they were. In fact, they were so absorbed in trying to be silent that they didn't notice Wingx watching them. She had already perfectly matched their movement and had been following them for some time.

"What are you guys doing?" she asked eventually, they spun around to face her.

"Hiii, Wingx." Axel said slowly. "Eh… you slept in later than usual."

Wingx smiled. "My alarm clock went missing." She gave the blond an odd look. "And Roxas, any particular reason you're in a _maid's _outfit?"

Roxas blushed and mumbled something, Jinxes smiled brightly. "He's on cleaning duty, so Xigbar made him wear that for the rest of the week."

"… Right. And…?"

"And what?"

Wingx sighed. This could take a while. "What are _you_ guys doing?"

They looked at each other. "Who, us?"

"Yes, you."

"N-nothing! Why do you ask?"

She waited expectantly.

Jinxes folded her arms behind her back and started swinging from side to side. "We were… ah… um… well, you see… Xira… eh… eh-heh…"

Kagami cut in. "Xemnas suspected that Xira could be plotting against the Organization, so he asked us to investigate."

"You're spying on a ninja." Wingx said flatly.

Jinxes nodded. "Right! And we had the best… qualifications for this mission… or… something…"

Wingx raised an eyebrow. "Such as…?"

There was a short silence, only brief, but long enough to be awkward. Axel changed the subject. "Wanna join us?"

"The last time you tried to do something like that, you ended up on cleaning duty." A portal swallowed up the white-haired girl. "I'll pass."

Kagami looked at the others. "You know, somehow I don't think she believed us."

They continued as quietly as they could to make their way along the corridor until they reached room number XVII, where they stopped and listened. They could hear Xira's voice.

Jinxes mouthed {See? She's still going.}

"… 5012, 5013, 5014, 5015, 5016..."

{What's she counting?} Axel mouthed back.

Jinxes shrugged.

{So what's the plan?} asked Kagami.

Jinxes hesitated, then looked down and stared fidgeting. {P-Plan? Um… well… you see…}

{Don't tell me you dragged us into this without a plan.}

She continued to fidget, then had an idea. "This!" she announced, standing up.

"No, wait-" "J!" "Jinx!"

CRASH.

Jinxes kicked the door open, causing it to hit the adjacent wall and come off its hinges, sliding a little way down but miraculously staying relatively upright. There was a blur of movement from inside the room but when they looked, they only found Xira sitting on her bed with a book. "What?" she asked innocently. Then she noticed Roxas.

And began to laugh hysterically.

Not for the first time in the past half hour, Roxas reddened.

Jinxes had been laughing as well, but now she shook her head and went back to business. Pointing an accusing finger at the hysterical ninja, she said challengingly, "You were looking highly suspicious before! What are you hiding? And what were you counting just then?"

Xira suddenly stopped laughing and quickly glanced around the room for a subject. "Um… page numbers?"

Jinxes was unconvinced. "Doesn't it say the page number at… is that a PS3?"

"… maybe."

Axel was already crouched by it and excitedly going through her games. "… Tekken, Ninja Gaiden Sigma… -Hey, you have God of War III, too!"

Xira laughed nervously and muttered under her breath, "Yeah… about that…", but luckily no-one heard her because they were too preoccupied.

And then the door fell flat onto the ground. The room shook, and along with it came the ringing sound of munny somewhere behind the opposite wall.

Xira froze, the others turned to look at her.

"Leave this to me." said Kagami. "You guys-"

They needed no second notice. Xira was too busy trying to think up an excuse that she didn't react in time to stop Jinxes, Axel, and Roxas from restraining her while Kagami went to search the room. He spotted something on the wall and said, "Found it.", then proceeded to pick the lock.

"Hey, wait- I'm sure we can reach some sort of agreement or something…" Xira tried.

"Too late!" the four of them said at once.

"I'm wearing _this_ because of you." Roxas pointed out and instantly regretted it. Xira went into hysterics again.

The three restrainers stared at her, sharing the same thought: _You're bizarre!_

Kagami managed to release the lock and a door they hadn't seen before swung open. It was dark inside, so he switched on the light.

"Holy… What the hell do you _do_ with all that?"

The room was filled with a wide variety of treasure. In one corner was a glittering pile of munny, scattered by the crash but covering a large area of the ground. Other pieces of treasure poked out from the edges of the pile, including golden jewel-embedded elephant and monkey statues which probably came from the Cave of Wonders. There was also a trophy from the Olympus Coliseum, but as it was not addressed to anyone it had probably been stolen. In the opposite corner were large mounds of gold. The rest of the ground was littered with other valuable items such as pearls the size of rockmelons most likely from Atlantica, gold from Port Royal, and treasure from the emperor's palace in the Land of Dragons, as well as not-so-valuable items.

"Hey, isn't that Wingx's?" Jinxes asked, referring to the shadow-Heartless shaped alarm clock.

Kagami went to recover his top hat and noticed several other things belonging to Organization members, including Roxas' fish lamp.

"Right." he said to the others. "We'll take it in turns to take what we want."

"You can't do that!" Xira protested.

"Nothing wrong with stealing from a thief." He began to scoop gold into his top hat, and then into the hood of his coat when the hat was full. When he had all he could carry, he headed outside to deposit it but stopped; Xemnas was standing across from the door.

"You four, to my office. Now."

***

Despite her protests, Xira had to return all items belonging to fellow Organization members, but otherwise suffered no punishment. She decided that she was going to enjoy being part of Organization XIII. As for the other four…

"This sucks." said Kagami, soaking the cloth in the bucket and wiping the window again.

"You don't say." Axel agreed.

Jinxes pulled the rope to move higher up on the tower. "It could've been worse!" she said brightly.

Roxas grumbled and shook his head disbelievingly. "How?!"

The three of them grinned at him and said simultaneously, "You could've been wearing the maid's outfit!"

He slumped his head forwards. "… Yeah."

Xira laughed at them from inside the castle, then opened the window and called, "It's a big castle! You've got a long way to go if you want to be finished before morning!"

They all knew that daytime did not exist in this world, and so they glared and continued cleaning the towers in silence.

The four of them decided never to spy on a ninja again.


End file.
